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that does is there a mormon connection? a major announcement from the boy scouts delaying a highly anticipated vote to lift a ban on gay membership. we have that story. plus, we talk about marco rubio and whether he's making the biggest mistag of his life right now and the boy who was held in an underground bunker for six days just celebrates his birthday. what we just learneded about his captor. good evening.

tonight, is there a mormon connection? a major announcement from the boy scouts today. as i said, they're delaying a controversial and highly anticipated vote to lift a ban on gay membership. the question tonight, does the long history between the mormons and boy scouts have to do anything with the announcement? mormons represent 15% of the 2.7 million registered boy scouts. that is the single biggest group in america. they pay dues. also jointly on land together and their departure could leave a gaping hole in the organization, which has seen its membership decline by a third since 1999. now, the mormon church has sent mixed signals and its position on gay rights.

mormons spent nearly $20 million in 2008 trying to ban same-sex marriage in california. but in recent months, for the first time, the church acknowledges that sexuality is not a choice. they even unveiled a new website reaching out to gay members. just before our program, the church of jesus christ of latter day saints issued this statement. we believe boy scouts of america has acted wisely in delaying a vote. we cautious others not to speculate about our position or assume that individualing outside the scouting movement speak for the church. they say that the church has not launched a campaign to prevent a policy change. the church doesn't support a change at least to the boy scout's policy. "outfront" tonight, a reporter for buzz feed, a practicing mormon. john, a former eagle scout who

says he's been excommunicated from the mormon church because he is openly gay and want everyone to know we have asked for a representative from the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. they have declined our invitation to appear on the program. thanks to you for taking the time. ochbl a really important issue. what are your sources telling you about the role the church played in getting the boy scouts to delay this decision? >> you saw in that statement, the church's pr people are getting their paychecks today. they're trying to walk a very careful line. every resource i've talked to says that the church has been trying to exert some influence. they don't want this ban lifted but then the church comes out -- >> so, they want the ban on gays to stay the way it is. >> they have many reasons. they're worried about lawsuits. about what you know a pr campaign waged against the church, but they're also saying they're not exerting influence and that it's maybe individual

mormons exerting influence, not the church itself. it's very unclear because the lines between the two organizations have always been so blurred. >> right. especially when the first line of their statement that we read says we believe that they've acted wisely in delaying the vote. if you were for gays joining the boy scouts, you wouldn't think they acted wisely. >> especially because every source i've talked to says the momentum up to this point has been toward the ban being lifted. so this delay only serves to impede that process from taking place. >> on, you were an eagle scout. grew up mormon. you say you were excommunicated in 1986 because you were gay. has the church changed? >> well, there's huge change happening in the church now and you know, the unveiling of this website i think is a step in a process that's been underway for some years. and you know, for me, personally, it was huge for the

church to really publicly come out and say that first of all, we acknowledge you didn't choose to be gay. we knew we want you to feel welcome. we want you to feel included and i thought that there was a very clear message that they wanted gay people to be able to participate as fully in the church as possible and they said really the only requirement is that you follow the church regulations regarding sexual morality. for boy scouts, for youth, i can't see how that, you know, how being gay and having that sexual orientation should be any kind of hindrance at all to participating fully in the church's youth activities, which includes a boy scouts. the church's youth program is very much for the young men. >> what i'm hearing from the

church is that they actually would allow people who identify as gay into boy scout programs, but not those who act on their homosexuality, so this is a very fine line. >> that's an absurd line and as a catholic, they -- same absurdities, right. yes. >> so they're trying to walk that line, but in the end, if the boy scouts do lift this ban, the church is going to have to decide do we stay with this organization, which we've been with for 100 years and which is so entangled or decide to divorce. >> not many people and i have to say everyone. we reached out. we tried to get people who were saying let's keep the ban on gay marriage in the boy scouts who were mormon to talk and they don't want to. says something at least to mckay's point, the way momentum was and how people feel that's not something that's going to fly. somebody who has been vocal is rick perry.

>> scouting is about teaching a substantial amount of life lessons, sexuality is not one of them. never has been. doesn't need to be. >> that, okay. there are people who think that. that's the proof, right, john? >> that's kind of absurd. >> you know, when i was involved in the scouts, i wanted to be involved in the scouts for the same reasons everybody else did. i loved camping, swimming, the activities and certainly, the last thing in my mind was sexuality at that point in my life. and so, you know, i just talked today to you know, an individual who is active in the church today. he is gay. and he served as a scout master and you know, again, i think that there are so many of us that have participated for a long time. our behavior within the organization has been what's been expected of us and you

know, really the question here is are we going to send people a message that you have to lie or hide, you have to live in fear that other people are going to fipd out about this and you know, i came to a point in my life journey where i almost committed suicide because of my ainge wish about this. and to be able to be open about it, this is a huge thing if you're gay or lesbian. >> thank you very much. we really appreciate you both for taking the time. marco rubio has received a huge honor from his party, but it might end his career. plus, children who survived sandy hook are set to appear at this year's grammy awards. are they being exploited? and the northeast prepares for an historic storm or not. no one seems to be able to forecast it or agree. what the heck? when you have diabetes...

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tonight, people up and down the northeast are bracing for a potential blizzard. the weather models, which have been all over the map, suggest this could be an historic storm. chad, what can we expect?

>> you asked a good question before the tease. what's going on with this? how come nothing's agreeing? i'm going to take you back to the super bowl. we have a quarterback that has to throw the ball. there's the ball. we have a receiver up here. this is the cold air. this is the warm air. if the receiver gets there too fast before the ball gets there, it's an interception. if the moisture doesn't get there, it's just goes out to sea and it's an incomplete pass. so we have these two storms that have to merge right off the coast of new york city. if it happens, we have quite an historic event that's going on. here's where the snow is right now. milwaukee and the like. here's where the rain is. this is the big rainmaker for the southeast. could be inches in places that have quite a bit of rain already. here goes the rain up the east coast. red spots there. that's 6 to 10 inches of rainfall along the northeast

along the atlantic coast from bloomington up to parts of delaware. but here's where it gets interesting. when that rain gets up here where the cold air will be, that's where the connection has to happen. that's where the storm is going to spin. that's why there's a blizzard watch already. this is 36 hours before this snow even starts. that's why i'm so wishy washy. i can't say 1 to 12 because that's where the computers are. computers for new york city could be 1 inch with mostly rain. i'm going to show you one that will scare you. boston on this computer, 21 inches of snow. i think that's a pretty good number, especially for the berkshires. this computer says oh, my gosh, it's not going to warm up at all. the rain's not going to happen. 23. literally, we have 1 to 23 inches of snow possible in new york city. it's a big storm for somebody any way. >> for somebody, but i'm just so confused.

it used to be to me we always knew what the weather will be and now, it could be big, little. is this because of climate change? what? >> it's because of overpopulation of model ts and overthinking it. now, we have so many models, look at this one, look at this one. before, we had two. we looked at one, decided one or the other. now, we have like nine so we don't know which one to pick i. >> wow. you know what? sometimes the plet ra of choices is not so great. thanks, chad. and now to our second story "outfront," a blessing or curse. today, we learned republican senator marco rubio of florida is going to give the gop response to obama's state of the union address next week. the whole country watches you, you're in the center of attention, time to shine for a 2016 presidential candidate. here's the problem. it hasn't always been a shining moment for rising stars in the past. david frum joins me along with rosa brooks.

i'm sorry, this just made me chuckle. david, i started thinking back to bobby jindal in 2009. panned by democrats and republicans alike. people were so nasty. they were picking on the way he walked out to the podium. it was pretty harsh. "the new york times" headline the next day was governor jindal rising star plumets after speech. is this too dangerous for a rising star to take on? >> well, these are big opportunities and there's always a chance of recovery. let's not forget one of the most universally condemned speech of recent times was bill clinton's keynote speech at the 1988 democratic convention when he got a big round of applause when he said in conclusion. he did okay. they nominated him next time and he went on to a pretty successful political career. let's not forget that last time the person who gave the response

was paul ryan, who went on to win the republican vice presidential nomination. if you do well, there are opportunities. if you do badly, it's a difficult thing to recover from, but not impossible as bill clinton showed. >> rubio has some ground to catch up. he's running behind at least paul ryan. when it comes in popularity and for those who want to say paul ryan's out of it because he was on the losing team obviously the polling doesn't seem it. very likely to support for the republican nomination in 2016. 75% say chris christie is at 59. in this sense, there is a big opportunity for marco rubio, right? >> i think it's a great opportunity and i think it's a blessing. it's a good thing for the republican party and i'm a democrat. i don't know if you know that. >> easy to see. doesn't mean you have to be -- >> absolutely. and when good things happen to the republican party, a little grinch like part of my heart starts shriveling. he is one of the best hopes for

the republican party. he speaks to the growing hispanic population, the latin population. it's really exciting he's going to be doing his speech in spanish as well as english. i think if he plays this right and there is always a risk, this is going to catapult him up and i think it's going to be terrific for the image of the republican party. >> and david frum, there's something here that people may not realize. rubio's going to deliver the address in english, then in spanish. is this going to woo over the hispanics who have repudiated the gop? >> it opens the door. he gave the best speech in 2012 at the republican convention, but there is a tendency in the republican world to overemphasize messaging. it's great that you're speaking in spanish. the question is, what will you say?

you have to have a message that connects with middle class america and republican of all backgrounds and republicans have been having trouble doing that. that is a urgent challenge. a middle class message. not just more adept messaging. >> i mean, i guess the -- pretty interesting to see how it could pan out over time. but we shall see how we will do. criticize the way you walk, better practice your stride and everything else. next, one of the most feared jihadists in the world is hunting american citizens. why didn't this country take him out when we had the chance? because we did ten years ago. and chris christie comes out swinging when he hears a doctor tell him this. >> it's almost like a time bomb waiting to happen unless he addresses those issues before he runs for office. our third story, taking out a terrorist. one of the most feared jihadists in north africa has been hunting americans. we first heard about the man last summer. a tribesman got a call telling him this man was in the area. what's his name? born in algeria, he's been a jihadist since his late teens. he's feared, but also revered in northern africa. now, we are learning the united states had a chance to kill him a decade ago. but missed the opportunity. it's a pretty incredible

headline. "outfront" tonight with that story is our chris lawrence. >> he's a one-eyed bandit, the head of a cell called those that sign in blood. ten years ago, the u.s. considered taking him down and chose not to. vicki huddleston was the u.s. ambassador to mali when he first popped on the radar. >> he was not a threat to anyone. just a cigarette smuggler at that point and not a legitimate target. >> ten years later, he is one of the most brazen to have targeted americans abroad. in january, he master minded the attack on an algerian gas plant. three americans ended up dead. >> we've seen he is a much cleverer man than we manled. >> back then, it seems too risky. huddleston argued against an air strike in 2003.

>> the strikes would have been imperfect and would have united the region against us. >> she did push for intense intelligence sharing and mentoring with mali's forces and uniting the region against militants. >> the tragedy is we did not continue the same policy. >> she later moved over to the pentagon for the obama administration. she says they advocated a policy of trying to contain al-qaeda in north africa, instead of building up the abilities of regional governments to fight them. she says there's no guarantee mukhtar will confine himself to north africa. >> france is definitely a country where he would carry out terrorist attacks. also against americans in american insulations in africa. >> similar perhaps to osama bin laden. when the 1990s began, he was in saudi arabia.

in 1992, he crossed into africa and escapeded assassination in sudan. in 1996, bin laden took a chartered flight to afghanistan. in 1998, president clinton ordered a missile strike on bin laden and missed, but crews say they missed other opportunities to get bin lad b. whether the miss on mukhtar ever comes close to the miss on bin laden remains to be seen. >> still to come, the child who was held hostage in an underground bunker celebrated his birthday today. what we now know about the man who held him captive. plus, survivors of the sandy hook shooting set to appear at this year's grammy awards. is that a healthy distraction or is it true they're being exploited? with a machine. what?

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welcome back to the second half of "outfront." we start with stories we care about where we focus on reporting from the front lines. we begin with the u.s. postal service planning to drop saturday mail delivery in august.

they say the move will save $2 billion a year. now, they lost 16 billion last year. it comes with a personal cost though. as many as 22,500 jobs could be affected. two key things have led to the post office's demise. one, the 2006 mandate to. if every country abided by that, we wouldn't be in the crisis. the chart shows a deline of about 50 billion letters and packages. for more, go to cnn.com. president obama has nominated sally jewel to succeed ken salazar as secretary of the interior. jewel isn't a career politician. she's the ceo of rei. before that, she was an engineer at global oil. phil ratford of green peace says

because she has worked with both parties, they're going to be counting on our leadership to fast track clean energy and stop what he believes is wreckless drilling in the arctic. last night, we told you about how a former physician described chris christie's weight at a time bomb waiting to happen. today in classic style, christie responded. >> i find it fascinating that a doctor in arizona who's never met me, never examined me, never reviewed by medical history or records, knows nothing about my family history, could make a diagnosis from 2400 miles away. she must be a genius. >> he wentn to say though one of his sons saw the interview and asked if he was going to die. it shows you the personal side. the doctor told cnn it was unfortunate the governor took it in that manner and that her comments were meant to be constructed.

there's a lot of talk about whether ashley judd will run against mitch mcconnell. on american cross roads, the superpack carl rove is associated with is running this ad against her. >> you know what this country really needs? an independent voice for obama. >> i am committed to president obama and vice president biden. i think he's a brilliant man. he is now able to flower more as the president i knew he could be. >> a leader who knows how to follow. >> i will go where ever the president wants me to go. >> the group is spending $10,000 to run the ad online. here's what a spokesman told "outfront" -- taking a page from the chris christie playbook. it's been 552 days since this country lost its top credit rating. good news on hiring. home depot said it's going to hire 80,000 seasonal workers for the spring.

10,000 more than last year. our fourth story, happy birthday, ethan. the child who was abducted from his schoolbus and held hostage for nearly a week was home, safe with his family, celebrating his sixth birthday today. the bunker tonight is now set to be destroyed as soon as they remove all of the evidence. this is according to the sheriff in dale county. cnn is also learning more tonight about the man who held ethan captive after shooting and killing ethan's bus driver. martin savidge has the story. >> reporter: as bomb disposal teams spent a second day searching arpd the bunker. cnn's learns explosives weren't the only unstable variable law enforcement had to deal with. there was dykes' state of mind. neighbors described him as a paranoid loner. >> he used to keep notebooks of horse races.

he always said that mafia run the horse races. >> reporter: sources close to the case say while talking to police from his bunker, a contentious dykes would ramble on about his theory and wanted to get his message out. >> he feels like he has a story that's important to him although it's very complex. >> reporter: had the early hours of the standoff, local authorities contemplated sending in a local reporting to talk to dykes. local blogger ricky stokes was the first reporter on the scene capturing this video. he says authorities approached him with the idea. and you were willing to go along with that? >> anything they needed me to do, if it meant me showing you to use equipment or many going into the bunker, i was willing to do just like everybody involved in the operation over there would have done.

>> reporter: in the end, the plan was nixed and the fbi took over investigations. they began training in on a model of the bunker behind a restaurant screened off by a blue tarp. it was located over there next to the building. it's been taken down now, but that secretive training was taking place next to here. the media compound. it turned into action monday afternoon. authorities say he had become nor irrational and when he was seen with a gun, the deadly assault began. rescuers blue a hole in the roof, but says dykes fired at agents, who returned fire, killing him while leaving ethan unharmed. >> martin savidge joins me now along with john miller and dr. james fallon, a neuroscientist. i know you spoke with a lot of people who knew him. were they surprised this happened? that this came to this? >> reporter: they were surprised

it did come to this. i think a lot of people felt in no way would he harm that child. authorities made the call on that. >> john, you've talked to officials who have seen the video because there was a video of what happened on that bus. you and i were just talking. it was very, very emotional. >> this video, you think he goes on the bus, he grabs a child at gunpoint, shoots the driver, you think this happens in five seconds. it goes on for four and a half minutes and he knows the bus driver. the bus driver had dropped off fresh eggs and homemade preserves at his home a few days before to thank him for putting kind of a driveway in so he could make the u-turn. >> so they had a relationship, probably as much he had with anyone. >> in fact, when they we want to

search for a third party for somebody to help in negotiations, the sheriff's department went out there and came back and said we can't find anybody who has a relationship with him. the person he seemed to know more than anybody was charlie, the bus driver. >> and what happened when the bus driver in those four and a half minutes? >> he comes on the bus and he hands him a piece of paper. it's kind of got instructions on it. he hands it to charlie, the bus driver and charlie stands up and puts himself between, it was about 20 kids on the bus. this is an odd schoolbus because of the rural area. you have kids from kindergarten to high school there. the littlest kids in the front, oldest in the back. he says i'm going to need to take two kids and charles, who has been through hostage training two years before in case a gunman came on his bus, said i'm responsible for these children and you can't have they

will and over that four minutes, you hear dykes saying i'm going to kill you if you get in the way. he says i'm going to shoot you. i'm going to shoot you and he is frightened, but stands his ground and then dykes shoots him and it's ethan, the 5-year-old, who's sitting there in the front row. at that point, he just takes ethan and heads to the bunker. >> just an amazing story of heroism. when you hear what he was like, a loner, possibly the person he was closest to was the man he shot and killed. one person told us dykes thought the world was wrong and he was right. what can you tell us about this man's personality? >> of course, we don't know anything about him. it's like governor christie talking about a diagnosis 2,000 miles away. sounds like he's paranoid type. they take everything personally

and they're on a mission and have odd sorts of feelings about their own body and they think people are always talking about them. it's not atypical. >> ptsd, he was a vietnam vet and a lot of people watching this, parents, is this something to be afraid of. people who are loners, who seem a little strange could do something awful. is ptsd, is it fair to link that to this? >> well, it's just that they're, they often go together. it's not unusual for that to happen. in any sort of trauma. it could be a precipitating event. they could have been that way from birth. there is probably a genetic compound, so to blame it on the war, the war could be a trigger. it would go along with that personality type.

>> and john, i mean, are we ever going to get more information about dykes? >> we've learneded a little bit and i think dr. fallon would probably read some things into this, but here was a guy who patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a rifle to make sure that nobody was coming on to his property. he once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe that crossed through his land. here's a person who brandished a weapon at his neighbors. these are some of the reasons he had no friends or wasn't in contact with any family in the area. so what we see here is somebody with an elevated sense of importance, his controlling the area around him. what we really see here is an individual who wanted to rail with his grieve enss, particularly about the federal government, no one would listen

to him and say a month and a half after the newtown disaster, if you want a high value target, take children off the schoolbus and then you'll be talking to the federal government and anybody you want. >> today was ethan's birthday. what can you tell us about how they celebrated that? >> reporter: we talked to the sheriff and he had the opportunity to see him. it's done very much under the protection of the federal government. still in the protection of authorities. he had a party. it was private. he was playing with toys. he was with his family and he was smiling ear to ear. that's all we know about how this day was spent. >> thanks very much toal three of you. still to come, survivors of the sandy hook shooting sa have appeared at the super bowl and now are going to appear on a show with ryan seacrest.

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we are back with tonight's outer circle. tonight, we begin in cairo where president ahminedjad was on an historic visit today and he was met with a shoe. four men hurled shoes at him as he shook hands with supporters. this came on the first visit by an iranian head of state in years. >> the four men face jail time. they're out on bail, but they will be put on trial at some point. in the muslim world, throwing a shoe at someone is one of the worst insults imaginable. it's like throwing dirt, filth at someone you don't like. he was walking through a crowd, when someone launched a shoe at him. the shoe didn't connect. it hit a security guard. prosecutors say right before the attacker threw the shoe, he yelled, you killed our brothers. iran backs the assad regime in damascus.

egypt does not. >> of course, this isn't the first time a world leader has been pelted with footwear. remember back in 2008 when an iraqi journalist launched both loafers at a very deft george w. bush during a news conference. the man who did it was sentenced to a year in an iraqi prison. next to north korea where the country is pledging to carry out a quote higher level nuclear test, the details are shrouded in mystery, but experts warn the tests could happen with no warning. following the story and i asked her if there was evidence to suggest how serious north korea is. >> despite the threats and fiery rhetoric coming from north korea, experts believe they're serious and ready to go. after the successful rocket test in december, pyongyang is on a roll and many fear if this goes

off without a hitch, north korea will emerge more aggressive than ever. pyongyang conducted nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 and its underground site on the northeastern tip of the country. satellite imagery recently showed activity and officials believe the third test will be conducted here. >> all right. and now, our fifth story "outfront." exploiting the students from newtown. that's what some are saying after it was announced that ryan seacrest would be featuring a group of students on his show that airs before the grammys. now, e entertainment says they're going to be singing the hit song, "call me maybe." another group of students sang alongside jennifer hudson at the super bowl. is this cute, endearing, good for the kids or exploiting the tragedy? you were unafraid to come out and give your point of view on this when you read about the kids performing, you tweeted out come on, it's just exploitation. >> if psychologists and grief

counselors say this is good for the kids, great, but on the part of the grammys, the adults, is it exploitive? if you want to do something, send these people to the school like the mls did when they had soccer night in newtown. they sent people quietly into the community. something good for the kids. did it get press? absolutely. >> but not taking the kids, flying them across the country and disrupting their lives? >> exactly. various groups of the kids sang at the super bowl, they performed on good morning america. in the new york times nfl blog, after it was announced the kids would be in the super bowl. this is what they wrote.

the super bowl is more than a game, it's a national event. is there a touch of exploitation in the move? maybe even a hint of political commentary? in the super bowl, a place where no one would think that's appropriate, do you agree? >> i don't think that the idea that being exploited? i think it's irrelevant in this case. i think the families of new town don't want the american people to forget the tragedy that happened at sandy hook. people have a short memory. they're on to next week's news, next week's tragedy. but 20 little children were slaughtered. and right now yes there is pending legislation. there's great debate over gun control. they want that debate, they don't want people to forget. and having their children singing and reminding -- honoring their classmates is a perfect way to remind people of what happened. >> i see your point, although, slade, i can see where you're coming from. it may be good for us, for the country, but what about for the kids. that's ultimately what we have to care about. i don't know the answer, i'm

saying i understand the distinction. >> they're not being taken across country. apparently ryan seacrest is flying there, they're going to be filmed there. but these were their classmates and they're traumatized. and so doing something together with their -- the other pupils in the school, i think this is fully a very kind of supportive thing to do. >> right. >> what about, though, the political undertones. i want to ask this, because noticing how this happened at the super bowl, there were the kids from new town, and in front of them was jennifer hudson. jennifer hudson has a horrible tragedy in her own life, with her mother, brother and nephew being shot and killed. can you view it as a political statement about guns. >> you could. and i think some of the families in newtown would want you to view it as a political statement. that's all well and good. >> is it appropriate for the super bowl? >> right. >> this is something the entire country needs to think about. it's a huge issue. and so why not take the super bowl to remind people that this

is going -- gun violence is occurring every single day in this country and children are often the victims. >> there's also going to be a movie. and i want to get your take on this, and tell our viewers here. there's a movie, a director has come out and said i want to do a movie. a 13-year-old boy with a terrible mental illness. has a huge fear after his parents learn about the newtown shooting. it's directly linked. is it too soon in. >> i think it's too soon. again that is exploitative. that is the society we live in at large. almost everything we do, in the media, the blogs, is exploitative of tragedies. that's become the society that we currently live in. >> right. >> well, people can make that criticism. i mean, let's just be honest here. they can make that criticism of us and our coverage of the media. >> these tragedies are not made up. these tragedies are enormous, and they're preventable. why wouldn't we talk about them? i don't think it's exploitation to talk about what's gone on. >> yeah, i'm all for talking about, and i'm all for doing this if the kids actually want to do it.

that's great for them. i'm talking about the adults in the situation who are supposed to be there, and not just use them for their gain. i think the gram his saw what happened at the super bowl. they saw that it was all over the internet. they saw the tweets, they saw -- >> we want a piece of that too. >> we want a piece of that action. that's all i'm speaking to. >> i'm thinking about the kids, the parents of newtown. they have to every day probably comfort their children before they go to school. i mean, those children have been deeply traumatized. they must be terrified to go out the door and go to school every day. and i think that joining with their fellow classmates, singing. thinking about the classmates they lost, like you don't just forget about this in a few days, in a month. this will go on for years. doing things like this together can help them. >> bonn any, slade thanks to both of you.

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